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Expert Service & Passion: About Us

We are an online specialty retailer of road and mountain bikes, components, apparel, and accessories. We deliver the personalized service of the best local shops, but with a dynamic, interactive experience only possible on the Web — specially designed to make you knowledgeable and confident about every product we sell.

Expert Service & Passion: About Us

posted on
November 25, 2013

There are over 4,000 brick-and-mortar bike shops in the United States, and a handful of internet bike retailers of note. So why shop online at Competitive Cyclist? It’s because we provide the best of both worlds. Even though we operate online, we sacrifice none of the personalized service of a local bike shop.

That service starts with our bike experts. Every member of our staff has a grasp of technical detail that’s, well, awesome. And we know that the most effective way to share this knowledge is as unpretentiously as possible. We take pleasure in demystifying jargon. Call us with a technical question, and we’ll talk your ear off until we’re sure that we’re being clear and well-understood. Send us an email, and you can expect a reply within hours, not days. And while you’ll find our prices to be sufficiently low, you’ll quickly see that what elevates us above our competition is our ability and willingness to communicate with our customers.

Whether it’s a technical or practical matter—”What’s the difference between SRAM Red and Force DoubleTap levers?” “What’s the status of the order I placed last Tuesday?”—no other retailer does more to convey the vital information every serious cyclist desires.

Even though we strive to provide you with the sort of personalized service that’s ordinarily only found at America’s finest brick-and-mortar shops, we sacrifice none of the dynamic and interactive experience you get by shopping online. From our in-house photography to our rider-written product descriptions, we fully harness the power of the web to put you in a position of knowledge and confidence about every product we sell. We understand that the more knowledgeable and confident you are, the more likely you’ll be satisfied with your buying choices. Every bit of web functionality we’ve developed has been built with this first and foremost in mind.

Take, for example, our Fit Calculator — To develop it, we logged countless hours fitting people on our Fit Cycle. We analyzed systems such as the Fit Kit inside and out. We worked with the cycling consultants at the Australian Institute of Sport. We expanded the scope of biomechanical variables taken into account by time-honored sizing methods. All of this work allowed us to achieve a new level of accuracy for an automated frame-fitting system.

Our Custom Bike Builder received the same amount of scrutiny in its development. We’re comfortable saying that it’s the most advanced custom bike configuration system that you’ll find on the web. This interactive tool allows you to compare and compile detailed price and weight information for any of the bikes we sell. You’re able to explore your various component options, all the way down to chainring configuration and bar tape color. Revise your selections as often as you’d like, and once you’ve finalized your choices, you’re able to submit your bike build specifications directly to us. For more information on how to use our Bike Builder, CLICK HERE.

When you order a bike from Competitive Cyclist, you can be assured that it won’t be manhandled by some frustrated bike-racing college kid who’s doing time as a seasonal, minimum-wage employee. Rather, our staff will treat your bike as though it’s their own. Our level of commitment to an impeccable build is reflected in the number of bike industry certifications that our service staff has received. Competitive Cyclist isn’t a sweatshop in which we “crank out” bike assembly; rather, our team approaches builds with care and precision. We face bottom brackets. We check frame alignment. We combine our years of experience with your specific needs in order to deliver a bike that will shift crisply, brake solidly, stay in adjustment, and look as though it’s ready for a parade lap around the Champs Elysées.

Questions? Please don’t hesitate to contact us. We hope to become your resource as you shop for a new pro-quality bike, or any of the componentry, clothing, or accessories that you need.